The Bible is filled with images that it uses to picture
reality. God is a rock, a fortress, a warrior. People are mists. Life can
become a very dark valley. Images. Jesus uses lots of images. Sometimes He uses
them to picture Himself. He is the door, the life, the vine. Today, we're going
to look at another of these images. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. And unlike the
hired hand, He cares for His flock of helpless sheep. And that care extends to
the ultimate sacrifice. Listen to what Jesus says. (John 10.11-18)
Three times Jesus says that He lays down His life for His
sheep. He is talking about the Cross. It seems very apt, with Good Friday on
the horizon, to spend a little time trying to see more of what's going on when
Jesus lays down His life. I have one goal especially in mind. I want you to see
Jesus as a person, a human, someone who is just like you. I want you to see
what happened on Good Friday not as simply a teaching to agree with. I want you
to see what happened as one person watching another person face something
horrific. Seeing Good Friday more clearly will help you see the Gospel more
clearly.
Here's my first thought. He didn't want to do it. Jesus
didn't want to go to that Cross. We know that He didn't want to because we have
overheard His prayer on the night of His arrest.
Father, if you are willing, remove
this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.
We can read that as if spoken calmly, without any strong
feeling. 'You know, I'd rather not. But if you insist - well, okay.' But it
wasn't spoken that way at all. Listen to what was happening as He prayed those
words.
And being in an agony he prayed
more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to
the ground.
This isn't anything like, 'I'd rather not but...' Luke uses
words like 'agony' and 'more earnestly' to describe what’s going on in Jesus.
And do you remember that Jesus needed the help of an angel as He struggled with
His prayer. He didn't want to do it.
As you consider that, one thing is made clear. This was no
make-believe situation. God wasn't putting on an interesting little play,
filling the role of one of the characters who dies at the end of the play - but
not really. It's just a play, right? No, this is very real. Jesus is very
human. So, dying on a Cross was not just part of the plot to act out for the
audience, and then later go to the cast party. No. It was real. It was His
life. It was His death. And He didn't want to do it. You wouldn't.
Now, we need to ask the why question. Why is it that Jesus
didn't want to be nailed to that Cross? Saying it that way makes the answer
obvious. Who wants to suffer? Who wants to hurt? Nails? Dying on a Cross was
pain in the extreme and that for an extended time. And it was designed to be
that. Jesus wasn't going to float above all of that. He was going to feel it.
He was going to feel all the excruciating pain of a slow death. Who wants to go
through that? Should anyone wonder why Jesus didn't want to do it?
Yet - and this gets us to a deeper answer to our question -
there have been untold Christians since who went to death, even very painful
deaths, calmly. Think of the saints sent to the Coliseum with its wild animals
or others being burned alive. Martyrs for Jesus approached death without the
struggle that Jesus experienced during His prayers. Why? Why were they so calm
and He so agitated? Jesus explains:
My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?
Jesus said those words from the Cross. And they help us
understand that Jesus' greatest suffering on the Cross was not the physical
anguish - as great as that was. I have talked to you about the life of God.
I've told you that for an eternity God - Father, Son and Spirit - experienced
open, intimate and enjoyable relationships with each other. A few months ago, I
was given a fleeting taste of what it might actually feel like to enjoy
something like that, in its fullness, with God. No barriers, no secrets, no
hiding, no shame, no fear. Open, intimate, so enjoyable. It was just a fleeting
taste - just a few seconds - but it was amazing. Try to imagine enjoying the
full experience, completely unbroken for an eternity. Jesus enjoyed that. And
then, try to imagine being plunged into the exact opposite. Complete contempt,
utter rejection, intense hatred. Forsaken. Someone who has never been loved
doesn't feel the pain of being forsaken. But what does that say of someone who
knew love in ways that we never have - and then had it ripped away? Jesus went
from beloved Son in whom His Father was so very pleased to despised and hated
scum.
Jesus went from drinking deeply of the glories of divine
love to being plunged into the depth of divine rage. Behind that rejection of
Jesus was the Father's justice against sin. Hell has become a debated issue
these days. There are some who think that the idea of hell is just too dark. It
pictures God as too angry. Well, it is dark, and He is angry. It is, after all,
God's justice against those who would unthrone Him if they could. Those in hell
know all about God's angry justice against their sin. But imagine experiencing
that anger, not just for the sins of one lifetime, but for the sins of a
multitude of lifetimes. Jesus suffered divine darkness and wrath for all of the
sins of all of His sheep. Countless hells condensed into those horrible hours
on a Cross.
I hope that it is clear that the Father and the Son are not
going through some game, acting out make-believe roles. Jesus faced the Cross
in the way that He did because it was real for Him. His suffering, both
physical and emotional, was very, very real. No play acting. And that will help
you understand a little better why Jesus was in agony during His prayers that
night in Gethsemane.
The right question at this point is, 'How was He able to do
it?' Now that you have a better sense of what He endured, that's the right
question to ask. But the right answer is not, 'Well, He was God, so it was no
big deal.' You can see that that doesn't fit the facts. Jesus faced the Cross
as a human, as a person about to be cut off from everything that made His life
worth living, everything that made His life good. But He was not forced to do
that. He did it by choice. How? Another word from the Cross.
Then Jesus, calling out with a loud
voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”
This is a quote from one of the Psalms. To understand what
Jesus means, you need to hear this in context.
In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in
your righteousness deliver me! Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a
rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! For you are my rock and my
fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of
the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have
redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
This is one of David's psalms. He is in trouble. A net has
been laid, and David has been trapped in it. There were some who were out to
get him, and it appears that they had succeeded. And so, David does what he is
supposed to do. It's the only thing that he can do. He cries out to his God.
And he uses the right words to describe this God: a rock (the picture of
stability), a strong fortress (the picture of safety and security). And he is
clear what he wants his God to do. He is crying out that his God might rescue
him. He is depending completely on that rescue. That's what the phrase 'let me
never be put to shame' is about. 'I'm counting on You, Lord. You have to come
through for me or I am utterly lost.' And so, as an expression of his trust
David says, 'Into your
hand I commit my spirit.' David believes the promises of God and entrusts
himself to those promises. He places his fate into God's hands. And that is
what Jesus is also doing. His ability to face and endure the horrors of the
Cross all hang on this: Jesus trusts the Father. He expects Him to act. He
expects Him to rescue Him. And so, He goes to the Cross. And His trust is not
misplaced. Easter Sunday is the proof of that.
One more question. Why did Jesus go through with all of this?
The answer is not hard to discover. He's already told us. It's because He's the
Good Shepherd. He is determined to take care of His sheep. And if that means
going to the Cross with all that that holds for Him, He is willing to go. He is
the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep.
My goal for the sermon is quite simple. It has to do with
two things: your thinking about Jesus
and your living for Jesus. Ask any
kid who's been to Sunday school to tell you about Jesus, and he'll probably say
something like, 'Jesus died on the Cross for my sins.' That's good, even
though, since he's just a kid, he doesn't understand much of what that's all
about. It is my desire that you would have a growing understanding of what
that's all about. It is my desire that when you say, 'Jesus died on the Cross
for my sins', there would be a growing appreciation of what that means. I'm
thinking that we'll spend eternity continuing to grow in our understanding of
what the Cross was all about.
Growing in your thinking about Jesus and the Cross will
affect your living for Jesus . I suppose, after hearing a sermon like this,
some might be motivated to live for Jesus because of a sense of guilt: 'Look at
what pain I caused Jesus!' There may be others who will be motivated by a sense
of debt: 'I need to pay Jesus back for what He's done for me.' You realize that
the Scriptures call for neither of those sorts of responses. And I hope that
you also realize why. In light of what Jesus accomplished on that Cross, they
make no sense. How does responding out of a sense of guilt make sense when the
point of the Cross is to free you from all guilt? And does anyone really think
that he could pay Him back? Could anyone come close to paying a tenth of a
percent of what is owed Him? Those motivations just don't fit. And sooner or
later, they will cease to motivate. If you think about it, the Scriptures call
for something very different from either of those responses. Instead of guilt
or debt re-payment the Scriptures call for loyalty, a loyalty rooted in love.
Jesus has rescued you from what you could not have rescued yourself - not in a
million years. What makes sense is a love that says, 'Whatever You want, Lord,
I'm ready to do it.' And we say this not out of guilt or a sense of debt, but
because of love. He knows that you will stumble in keeping that promise. But
making it is still a good thing. It's a place to start. It's responding to His
love for you with your love for Him.